The slaughter of innocents

ANOTHER OPINION

ANOTHER OPINION

April 21, 2007

From the Miami Herald There can hardly be a more idyllic setting for a university than the Virginia Tech campus in the New River Valley of southwestern Virginia near the Blue Ridge Mountains. Yet the sweet serenity of that campus was shattered in a most horrible way Monday morning when a lone gunman went on a shooting spree that hours later, would become marked as the deadliest gun rampage in U.S. history. What followed has become disturbingly predictable and familiar, almost routine: Expressions of shock and disbelief. Prayers for the victims and their families -- at least 33 dead, 15 or more injured.Questions about what went wrong and how procedures, security and processes can be fixed so that next time everyone will be better prepared. Make no mistake, there will be a next time -- and the routine will begin again. Ever quick, pro-gun advocates and supporters of the National Rifle Association were first in line to offer pundits with pathetic excuses (if the victims were armed, they could have protected themselves) and callous indifference to the great toll on human life. It is true enough that hard questions about the police and school's responses to the shootings must be asked and answered. Yet the more salient points for America to consider are these: -Without stronger gun-control laws, the slaughter of innocents in America will continue. By ones, twos, tens or dozens, people will be wantonly murdered by those who are emotionally scarred, mentally ill, innately violent, deranged, vengeful, addicted or just out for the demented thrill of killing a fellow being. In countries like Japan and England that have strong gun-control laws, these outbursts of random handgun killings seldom happen and never occur as regularly as they do here. It is no coincidence that Virginia has some of the weakest gun laws in the country. In Virginia, no license or training is required to purchase a gun, and at gun shows there isn't even the pretense of a background check. -Our culture is saturated with violence. The most popular movies and videos glorify violence and cheapen human life. Violent deaths, car crashes and mayhem are the mainstay of television news, often concentrated in a half-hour format. Music, especially rap and hip hop, sell violence as survival and coping skills. Even our youngest children get a full dose of animated and cartoon violence before they learn to read. America's fixation with violence and lack of strict handgun-control laws work hand-in-glove to make tragedies such as the Virginia Tech massacre all too common. This should be a wake-up call to stop the slaughter. If the worst incident of handgun violence in U.S. history doesn't do it, what will?